Sir William Wallace is one of Scotland’s greatest national heroes. He was the leader of the Scottish freedom fighters who fought to eventually free Scotland from English rule at the end of the 13th century.

Records of Wallace’s life are mostly unreliable and often inaccurate. This is mostly because early accounts of his life are speculative, and because he inspired such fear in the minds of English writers at the time that they demonized him, his achievements, and his motives.

Many of the stories surrounding Wallace have been traced to a late-15th century romance called “The Wallace”, which is said to have been composed by Henry the Minstrel, or “Blind Harry” as he was also called. This epic poem is strongly anti-English in language and tone. The most popular tales about Wallace are most often not historically accurate, but in this they show Wallace’s firm hold on the imagination of his people. He “represented the spirit of the common man striving for freedom against oppression, and exposed the Scottish nobility of the time as a group of dishonest opportunists”.¹

William Wallace was born in 1270, probably near the town of Ellerslie (now modern Elderslie), in Ayrshire, Scotland. His father was Sir Malcolm Wallace who was Lord of Elderslie and Auchinbothie, a small landowner and a little-known Scottish knight. His mother is believed to have been the daughter of Sir Hugh Crawford, Sheriff of Ayr. It is also believed that Wallace had an elder brother, called Malcolm after his father. Because he was the second-born son, William did not inherit his father's title or lands.²

At the time of Wallace's birth, Alexander III had already been king of Scotland throne for over twenty years. His reign is remembered as a time of peace, economic stability, and prosperity and he had successfully fended off continuing English claims to rulership over Scotland. King Edward I (known as Edward “Longshanks”) became king of England in 1272, two years after Wallace was born.³

There is almost no reliable information about William Wallace’s early years. He is said to have spent his childhood at Dunipace, under the care of his uncle, who was a priest. He and his brother Malcolm were trained in the art of warfare, which included horsemanship and swordsmanship. Carrick, in his book “Life of Sir William Wallace of Elderslie”, tells of William Wallace’s physical properties:

“His visage was long, well-proportioned, and exquisitely beautiful; his eyes were bright and piercing, the hair of his head and beard auburn, and inclined to curl; that on his brows and eyelashes was of a lighter shade. His lips were round and full. His stature was lofty and majestic, rising head and shoulders above the tallest men in the country. Yet his form, though gigantic, possessed the most perfect symmetry, and with a degree of strength almost incredible, there was combined such an agility of body and fleetness in running that no-one, except when mounted on horseback, could outstrip or escape from him when he happened to pursue.” ⁴

In 1286, by the time he was about sixteen, Wallace may have been preparing to become a churchman or monk. In that same year, King Alexander III died after riding off a cliff during a storm. None of Alexander III's children survived him. After his death, his granddaughter, Margaret, the “Maid of Norway”, was declared Queen of Scotland by the Scottish lords. But then she was still only a little girl of 4 years and was living in Norway. A temporary Scottish government run by “guardians” was set up to govern until Margaret was old enough to become queen. However, Edward I of England took advantage of the uncertainty and possible instability over the Scottish succession. He agreed with the “guardians” that Margaret should marry his son Edward (afterwards Edward II of England), and he promised that Scotland would be preserved as a separate nation. But Margaret fell ill and died unexpectedly in 1290 at the age of 8 years in the Orkney Islands on her way from Norway to England. Thirteen people were offered as kings of the Scotland.⁵

Scotland was by then truly occupied by the English. The many various aristocratic Scottish guardians of the throne plotted against one another, often making alliances with King Edward or defying their loyalty to him. At the same time English troops, including mercenaries and Welsh and Irish soldiers, operated freely throughout Scotland from stockade camps and fortified garrisons.

During this time, William Wallace’s father was killed in a fight with English troops in 1291. It is believed that because his father’s death at the hands of the English led to Wallace’s lifelong desire to fight for his nation’s independence. However, little is known about Wallace’s life during this period, except that he lived as an outlaw, constantly traveling to avoid the English, and occasionally confronting them with characteristic ferocity.⁶ Carrick describes Wallace’s skills as a warrior:

“All powerful as a swordsman and unrivalled as an archer, his blows were fatal and his shafts unerring: as an equestrian, he was a model of dexterity and grace; while the hardships he experienced in his youth made him view with indifference the severest privations incident to a military life.”⁷

In the absence of a clear successor, the claimants to the Scottish throne demanded Edward I to choose. The three main candidates were all descendants of David, Earl of Huntingdon, who was the brother of William the Lion, king of Scotland from 1165 to 1214. Finally, in 1292, John de Balliol was chosen as king by a special commission. Balliol paid homage to Edward, and was accepted in Scotland as king. However, Edward saw himself as the feudal superior of the Scottish crown, and wanted to put in a Scottish monarch through whom he could rule Scotland himself.⁸

But Edward underestimated the Scottish people’s belief in their own power. When he tried to use his control by taking law cases on appeal from Scottish courts to his own court in England, and by summoning Balliol to do military service for him against France, he turned the Scottish throne against him. Edward marched to north of Scotland with his armies. After a five-month war, he finally conquered Scotland in 1297. After his victory, Edward I chose his own agents to impose peace in Scotland. He imprisoned John de Balliol and declared himself ruler of all Scotland. He also had the Stone of Destiny, the coronation stone of Scone, taken south to Westminster. The government of Scotland was placed in the hands of Englishmen led by Hugh Cressingham, the Earl of Surrey.⁹

Outside the southeast corner of Scotland, there was widespread turmoil, and defiance against the English was rapidly increasing. William Wallace was soon involved in a fight with local soldiers in the village of Ayr. After killing several of them, he was overpowered and thrown into a dungeon where he was slowly starved. Wallace was left for dead, but kindly villagers nursed him back to health. When he had regained his strength, Wallace recruited several local rebels and began his efficient and merciless assault on the hated English and their Scottish sympathizers. As his support grew, Wallace’s attacks increased. In May 1297, with thirty of his men, he avenged his father's death by killing the knight responsible for the murder. Now, Wallace was no longer just an outlaw but a local military leader. William Wallace was the king’s enemy.¹⁰

Although most of Scotland was in Scottish hands by August 1297, Wallace successfully recruited a band of commoners and small landowners to attack the remaining English garrisons between the Rivers Forth and Tay. Wallace and his friend Sir Andrew de Moray marched their armies towards Stirling Castle, a stronghold of important strategic significance to the English. On September 11, 1297, the English army under John de Warenne, Earl of Surrey, confronted Wallace near Stirling. Wallace’s forces were greatly outnumbered, but they lured the English into making an impulsive advance, and then slaughtered them as they crossed the river. Wallace captured Stirling Castle and for the moment Scotland was almost free of occupying forces. Under Wallace, the Scots, -- commoners and knights, rather than nobles, -- were united in a fight for freedom from foreign rule.¹¹

In October of 1296, Wallace invaded northern England and conquered the counties of Northumberland and Cumberland. Upon returning to Scotland early in December 1297, he was knighted and proclaimed guardian of the kingdom, ruling in Balliol’s name.¹²

Wallace’s fame after the battle of Stirling Bridge was brief. Edward returned to England in March 1298. On July 3rd he invaded Scotland, intending to defeat Wallace and all others who dared to declare Scotland’s independence. On July 22, Edward’s army attacked a much smaller Scottish force led by Wallace near Falkirk. The English armies’ longbows destroyed Wallace’s spearmen and cavalry by firing arrows over great distances. Although Edward failed to control Scotland completely before returning to England, Wallace’s military reputation was ruined. He retreated to the thick woods nearby and resigned his guardianship in December. He was succeeded as guardian of the kingdom by Robert de Bruce (later King Robert I) and Sir John Comyn "the Red".¹³

On Aug 5 1305, Wallace was betrayed by a Scottish knight in service to the English king, and arrested near Glasgow. He was taken to London and tried for the wartime murder of civilians. He was condemned as a traitor to the king even though, as he correctly maintained, he had never actually sworn allegiance to Edward.¹⁴

On the 23rd of August 1305, Sir William Wallace was executed. He was dragged to the place of execution, hanged by the neck (but not until he was dead), and disemboweled while still alive. His entrails were burned before his eyes, he was decapitated and his body was divided into four parts (or quartered). His head was impaled on a spike and displayed at London Bridge, his right arm on the bridge at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, his left arm at Berwick, his right leg at Perth, and the left leg at Aberdeen. Edward hoped that with Wallace's capture and execution, he had at last broken the spirit of the Scots. But he was wrong. By executing Wallace so barbarically, Edward had martyred a popular Scots military leader and fired the Scottish people's determination to be free.¹⁵

Almost immediately after Wallace’s death, Robert I the Bruce revived the national rebellion that was to win independence for Scotland. He succeeded in Freeing Scotland and was crowned king in 1306. Soon afterwards, on his way to re-conquer Scotland, Edward died near Carlisle.¹⁶

Several hundred years later, statues commemorating Sir William Wallace were erected overlooking the River Tweed and in Lanark. In 1869, the 220-foot high National Wallace Monument was built on a hill near Stirling. This huge tower is built on the site where the Scots fought their most decisive battles against the English in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries at Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn.¹⁷